Best place to do internship?

Ok so before one of the mods goes off at me, I did trawl through the Intern forum, albeit not very thoroughly, and whilst there's a lot of interesting information this question doesn't seem to have been answered in a specific thread:

Where is the best place to do an internship?

Now I know that there are many factors involved, but from what I've heard if you want hands on experience you would be better off doing internship in a smaller hospital or even a semi-rural one compared to say a major metropolitan Hospital. I haven't started med yet so I'm quite in the dark, just to reiterate, but what do people think of this idea? Also, does your internship have a major impact on what your speciality is later on? (In terms of becoming a registrar).if you had your heart set on sub obscure speciality would you have to do your internship in a major hospital to get a place in this training program or does internship in a smaller hospital with more hands on experience help just as much? Sorry about the rant if you want more info just add it to the thread. Personal experience would be great!

If you want a foothold in the large tertiary hospitals as a trainee, you will get the inside running if you already work there.

75%? Where did you hear that? Highly doubtful.

ok, probably right

Originally Posted by chinaski

If you want a foothold in the large tertiary hospitals as a trainee, you will get the inside running if you already work there.

@chinaski
So, in other words, if you want to do some obscure sub speciality which requires training in a major hospital you're better off doing it there?

Originally Posted by n33b

75%? Where did you hear that? Highly doubtful.

Yeah... According to this (page 5), 3532/11478 NZ docs are GPs, so ~31% (2010 data) (To be fair, ~200 didn't reply, and that includes house officers/registrars, some of whom will be in training to be GPs). I'd imagine it isn't all that different in Aussie?

hmm well ok, disregard 75% stat, editing now

Originally Posted by james1917

@chinaski
So, in other words, if you want to do some obscure sub speciality which requires training in a major hospital you're better off doing it there?

If you want to train in an obscure sub-specialty, the ONLY place you'll be able to do that is in a major hospital.

Originally Posted by chinaski

If you want to train in an obscure sub-specialty, the ONLY place you'll be able to do that is in a major hospital.

Year I understand that, but in terms of intern year alone, surely the skills you learn in a smaller hospital would be just as applicable as someone in a major urban hospital. Like it's not as if you're going to be doing cardiac bypass surgery as an intern is it? Or am I hopelessly out of my depth here?

Originally Posted by james1917

Year I understand that, but in terms of intern year alone, surely the skills you learn in a smaller hospital would be just as applicable as someone in a major urban hospital. Like it's not as if you're going to be doing cardiac bypass surgery as an intern is it? Or am I hopelessly out of my depth here?

I think what China is saying is that if you already know people within that hospital, it's going to be easier to get onto a training program there. Working there is a pretty good way to get to know bosses/people who can get you onto the training program you want.